The Drunken Mishap
by dreamteller13
Summary: Gabriella Montez has always been known to be a good student and obedient daughter. Tired of having an oppressive life, she seeks adventure by sneaking out and going to a party where she gets blackout drunk. Little does she know that her seeking of adventure causes her to cheat on her boy friend, Chad, with her best friend, Troy.
1. Chapter 1

I opened my eyes to the blinding morning sun, which caused me to instantaneously close them again. I heard the bird's chirping outside, making my ears ring. It seemed deafening at this time of day. I suddenly became too lazy to open my eyes again, and instead I lay in bed, eyes closed, trying to recall what had happened last night. The only thing that I seemed to get a clear image of was me getting ready to go to Adrian's party. I didn't really know the guy, but my best friend, Troy, was good friends with him, so I decided to tag along. As I tried scooping into my thoughts and memories, the taste of vodka burned my throat. I had been drinking.

I got the energy to roll out of bed and get in the shower. I felt so dirty and sweaty. As I sat up, I saw a frame with a Wildcat basketball shirt it on the wall. Still a bit dazed from the night before, my thoughts tried to process the fact that wasn't in my room. It looked familiar. My thoughts were still trying to put together the puzzles pieces, and when it finally did, I knew where I was. It was Troy's room.

My initial thought was that I had gotten so smashed the night before, and I didn't have the ability to drive myself home. Knowing the type of guy Troy was, he would've offered me his bed. When I tried to roll over and get to the other side of the bed, I felt Troy's body. I sighed, a little irritated, but thankful that Troy let me stay the night. If my parents would've found out that I was drinking, they'd probably kick my ass. They didn't understand that sometimes their "perfect" daughter needs to let loose and have fun. They were strict about this kind of stuff. It was suffocating to my soul. At the thought of my parents, I remembered that they weren't aware that I was out. I looked at Troy's clock. It read 7:15AM. Shit!

On the third attempt of trying to wake up and get ready, my lazy ass finally did. But when I pulled off the blanket, my entire body felt cold. I looked down, and saw that everything was out. My boobs, my nipples, everything. I quickly got under the covers, panic running through my body. I had no recollection of me ever taking off my clothes last night. I decided to look under the covers to see if Troy was fully clothed. When I lifted up the blanket, all I could see was his nude body. I was all of a sudden able to process everything. I looked at the floor, and our clothes were sprawled all over.

"OH MY GOD!" I woke Troy up with my scream. He looked terrified.

"W-what, what's wrong?!"

"Look the other way."

"Wh-," I cut him off before he could say anything else.

"Just look the other way!"

"Okay, calm down."

I made a run for my clothes, playing hide-and-seek with them. I was almost sprinting across the room, and when I finally clothed myself, I heard Troy mumble.

"Oh no," he looked over at me, worried, "Did we…?"

"Hmm, I don't think so Troy. We just laid naked together last night and bonded, like all friends do," the sarcasm in my voice was strong.

"Do you think we at least used protection?"

"I don't fucking know Troy. I don't remember anything. I barely realized where I was a couple of minutes ago."

I was starting to panic. I hadn't even thought about whether or not we had used protection. I put on my shoes, and ran out, without saying goodbye. The only thing I had to worry about was whether or not my parents were going to punch me in the throat when I got home. I got in my car, turned it on, and floored the gas pedal.

When I arrived home, my parents' car was gone. I ran inside, hoping that I still had a chance to sneak under the covers and pretend that I had been there the whole time. As I approached my bedroom door, I saw that my door was open. I gulped and knew that today was about to go a whole lot worse than I thought. As I was praying to every religious figure from every religion in the world, asking if I could please continue to live after my parents arrived, I heard a car doors close. It wasn't any casual closing of the door, like when you're eager to be home, this was a slam. The sound caused me to jump, knowing that anyone who closes a car door like that is clearly pissed and wants the whole world to know. I thought it would be a genius idea to put on pajamas really quick and try to play it off cool as if I was there all night, and that's exactly what I did.

The front door opened, and even though they weren't talking, I knew they were telepathically talking shit about me and telling each other that they have the worst daughter ever. I slowly went down stairs, knowing that I would be greeted by them. I rubbed my eyes, thinking it would make it more believable that I had just woken up at my house, not Troy's. My dad saw me and sped walk over to me, his body language showing the anger.

"Do you mind tell me where you were?" The only other time I had ever heard him this angry was when I got a C- on a test.

"In my room, sleeping," I yawned, trying to make everything more believable.

"Don't fucking play dumb with me. I went in there and you were clearly gone. I called you 10 times and you didn't respond to any!" His voice was getting louder with every word. My mom, although she seemed infuriated, put her hand on my dad's shoulder.

"Honey, we agreed to not go so hard on her."

"What do you mean?! If anything, she deserves an ass whoopin'! Where the hell were you last night? _HUH_? Where did you spend the night?" I just continued looking at him, thinking of how stupid this pajama idea was.

"Don't just stand there! Answer me!"

"I went to a friend's birthday party. I've just been so stressed at school lately, and life was starting to become boring. I knew you guys wouldn't allow me, so my only other option was sneaking out."

"Parties aren't a stress reliever! There just full of trouble that is waiting to happen? Why don't you go to the congregation? There's a lot of young girl there who are fun. And who aren't idiotic."

"But honestly dad, all they talk about is their favorite drink at Starbucks, and Jesus, and how everyone in our generation is going to hell. What's the fun in that?"

"But are any of them getting blackout drunk? Are any of them out there being little whores and getting pregnant?!" I started remembering what I had found out this morning.

"You'd be surprised," I said under my breath, not realizing that my parent's could hear me.

"What?!"

"Nothing. Okay, I understand that you're mad and everything. I get it. I promise it won't happen again. Just please calm down. You have to realize that everyone makes mistakes. I'm only a teenager, what do you expect? A pure souled Virgin Mary?"

That only caused my dad to get angrier, but luckily my mom dragged him to the other room. I could hear my mom trying to convince him to let it go and that this would be a one time thing. I grabbed an apple from the counter, rinsed it off, and went back upstairs before my dad had the chance to come in and lecture me about how much of a mistake I made. I really wasn't in the mood. As I was walking upstairs, I realized that my dad had cussed a lot.

"He sure does cuss a lot for someone who considers himself a hardcore Christian," I said to myself, chuckled, and proceeded to take a bite from my apple.

I walked into my room and closed the door behind me, which in this house was the universal sign of "Do not disturb". I turned on my T.V whilst taking another bite of my delicious apple. I clicked on the "Guide" button to see what shows were on. I saw that "Teen Mom" was the only thing on this early other than infomercials. I clicked on it, and as soon as I did, there was this girl with a huge baby bump. Again, the incident that happened last night and this morning crept back into my mind. And then Troy's words, "Do you think we at least used protection?" echoed in my head. To make things worse, I received two messages. One from Troy that said "Call me when u can Gabs!". Another one from my boyfriend, Chad, saying "Good morning beautiful :)."


	2. Chapter 2

It was Sunday night, two weeks after the incident. I lay in bed as I was checking my Twitter. Ding. It was a text from Chad.

"Hey, is everything ok? You seem rlly down lately :/."

I ignored the message, just like all the others. I hadn't responded to him ever since me and Troy slept together. School wasn't much different either. I ignored him and gave him short responses when he asked me something, hoping he'd get mad and want to break up before I broke his heart with the news, I felt extreme guilt for having betrayed him like that. He always treats me so nicely, but sometimes, I just don't feel a true connection. I scrolled through Twitter, trying to deny those thoughts of the presence of love missing from mine and Chad's relationship. I know he loves me. Yeah, I may be a teenage girl who is too inexperienced to be calling something love, but I could see it in his eyes whenever he looked at me. He had told me many time before that I was a blessing in his life, that the minute we started dating his life had some sort of "rebirth". At first, I felt like I truly did feel the same towards him. Otherwise, I would have never gotten in this relationship. As time started to pass, I realized that he and I don't share the same interests, nor is his definition of "fun" the same as mine. Whenever I suggest doing something other than watching T.V and other boring things, he reacts like my dad would. He calls them "immature". I think that's why he made such a good impression on them, because all three of them think the same way. I got more and more into analyzing whether or not I was truly happy in this relationship, but guilt still remained the number one emotion I was feeling. He is such a good guy, and the only thing he tries to do for me is try to look out for me. He deserved much more than what I could offer, and deserved to know what was happened the night of the party, but how was I going to tell him?

I started feeling a little nauseous while I was still in bed, waiting for my thoughts to shut up and let me go to sleep. The feeling wouldn't go away, and after a good 5 minutes of hating my life, I finally decided to get up and go to the bathroom and just let it all out. It's uncommon for me to vomit, as I usually try to avoid it at all costs, even if that means feeling like shit for hours. My initial thought was that maybe my nervousness for school tomorrow and the fear that Chad was going to find out about everything soon was too intense for my stomach. After having thrown up my dinner into the toilet, I flushed it and looked at myself in the mirror. I was so disappointed and infuriated with myself. I walked back into my room and let my body fall onto my bed as if it were lifeless. I felt a lot better after vomiting. Before my rowdy thoughts had the chance to chance to keep my awake any longer, I dozed off and fell asleep, escaping reality for a while.

It was Monday morning, and my annoying alarm clock woke me up, as usual. But today I dreaded Mondays more than usual, and I hate them a lot already. I began to complain to myself about how fucked I thought the school systems were for making students go to school so early. My brain couldn't fully function at this time, especially when I had to get up at 5AM just to make sure I was on time. I walked into the bathroom, still talking to myself and pretending as if the rant in my head was going to change everything. I washed my face because there was something about night time that made my skin so oily, leaving an atrocity on my face. Afterwards, I grabbed my toothbrush and squeezed out some toothpaste onto its bristle. I put it under the running water and began brushing my teeth. For some reason, I started feeling nauseous again. The words "morning sickness" rang in my head. I literally shook my head, thinking that maybe it would help my mind get all jumbled up and forget about the thought. But again, just like the pajama plan, it was dumb and ineffective. I tried to convince myself that maybe I was coming down with the stomach flu or something. Not much convincing was done before I vomited while I still had toothpaste in my mouth. Luckily I was able to set the toothbrush down before making a run for the toilet. The taste of toothpaste and vomit mixed filled my mouth. In fact, it made me vomit even more. After what seemed to be 20 minutes of continuous vomiting, I finally stopped, walked back to the sink, and rinsed my mouth out. As I was about to brush my teeth for the second time, my mom walked in, tying her robe.

"Honey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just vomited a little, that's all."

"I heard you throw up last night, too."

"I think I might have the stomach flu, honestly."

"I'm sorry sweety. Do you want me to run to the store and get you any medicine."

"Nah, it's okay mom. It's like five in the morning. You can go back to sleep. After all, I'm more upset about vomiting while brushing my teeth than having the actual stomach flu."

"Well, if you want, you can stay home. I don't want you feeling sick at school."

"Thanks for taking into consideration your dying daughter's recovery. It's greatly appreciated."

We shared a laugh before she went back to her bedroom. When she closed the door behind her, I started the entire tooth brushing process over again. Meanwhile, I was extremely grateful that I got permission to stay home today, because that meant that I didn't have to lie to Chad's face, which had become a part of my daily routine, and I didn't have to make an extra effort to avoid Troy at all possible costs. I finished brushing my teeth, and went back to sleep.

I woke up at around nine o'clock to a house that is fully to myself. My parents had both gone to work. I went downstairs, because I usually look through the fridge for things to pig out to while watching T.V. But today, for some reason, I wasn't feeling it. I didn't even have an appetite. Actually, the loss of appetite was so intense that even by looking at food, I became nauseous. I figured it was the stomach flu trying to ruin my day of being home alone. I ran through the kitchen, where everyday my soul was cleansed when I stuffed my face, and avoided to look at any of the breakfast my mom had made me.

"Man, stomach flu really blows. I can't even enjoy food," I said to myself out loud knowing that there was no one here to judge me.

I made my way into the living room and laid down on the cold leather couches. My room was so hot, since the weather was starting to warm up, that the feeling of these couches brought a sense of relief. I feared turning on the T.V, knowing that with even if one of the many advertisements from Taco Bell appeared, I would vomit. I was wearing one of Chad's t-shirts, but no pants. That was one of my favorite things about being alone. I could be my complete self. Ding. I looked down at my phone, wondering who was bothering me in my alone time. It was Chad.

"Hey babe, where r u?"

I felt the need to respond to him, but I just made it short.

"At home. I don't feel good."

The response was so immediate that I thought he was secretly behind me reading the message before I sent it.

"Im srry bby! Do u want me to get u anything?"

I felt so bad. He cares so much for me, and yet I was treating him like complete shit because of a mistake _I_ made.

"No it's okay :). Thanks."

Ding. I thought Chad had texted back unbelievably fast again, but this time, a different name popped up on my screen. It was Troy.

"Hey Gabs, I know right now might not be the best time, since I've kinda gotten the message that we aren't friends anymore. Buuut, I just wanted to let you know that a while back, after everything happened, I cleaned my room & I didn't find a condom wrapper anywhere. So I just wanted to know if you're well, you know, pregnant? Txt me back!"

My heart started pounding ferociously in my chest. As much as I tried to deny it, I couldn't ignore the fact that vomiting this morning could been triggered by morning sickness. It may be the stomach flu, but I had to be 100% sure that I wasn't pregnant. I put on some pants, grabbed my car keys and made my way to the drugstore. I had to buy a pregnancy test.


	3. Chapter 3

I walked into the drugstore and got the chills when I remembered what I was there for. Normally, I'd come to pick up medication or grab a quick snack. I casually walked around the store, avoiding having to go to the aisle where the women's health, birth control, and pregnancy tests were, aisle three. I always thought that it was ironic having the thing that protects you from having a baby next to the thing that tells you if you were having a baby. But in the end, they both involve baby business that I was hoping I wouldn't become a part of. I went back to the front and grabbed a basket to grab some chips and a drink so the only thing in my basket wouldn't be a pregnancy test. I finally made my way to aisle three. There was an older woman with her husband right where the pregnancy tests were. They seemed so happy and eager to find out if they were going to have a baby. The man had his arm over his wife's shoulder as they were reading the backs of the tests, I'm assuming they wanted to see which one was the most accurate. The woman looked my way and I just flashed a smile before I intruded in their excitement with what would probably become the most awkward situation of my life. I recognized her from somewhere. She worked with my mom. She smiled back, almost about to say hi, but as soon as she saw me reach for a pregnancy test, I saw it fade away. Her husband, noticing his wife's sudden change of expression, looked my way until his eyes reached the view my hand. I could tell she was judging me, along with her husband. I felt my face get red and start to burn. My hands began shaking as I realized how much teen pregnancy was shamed upon. I'll admit, I always called those girls that got pregnant from a drunken night idiots. But now that I'm possibly in that position, I see that one little mistake can drastically change your life and how others look at you. As I looked at the back, hoping the couple would make their way to another aisle, I caught a glimpse of the "day after" pill. It was already too late for me to take it if I was pregnant. The couple stayed there, still staring at me, so I decided to take the pregnancy test that was in my hand and leave. I couldn't handle anymore embarrassment. I made my way to the checkout line praying my mom's coworker wouldn't go telling my mom that she saw her daughter at the drugstore. I felt as if everybody was looking at me, even though that wasn't the case. It was my turn to pay. I set my basket on the counter and watched the cashier scan the items . When she got to the pregnancy test, she paused and looked at it, then looked at me.

"This for you? Or your mom?"

I avoided answering her, and instead looked at her name tag. Her name was Karen.

"Why don't you shut your whore mouth and mind your own business, Karen." I thought out loud.

She just looked at me, her mouth open, in complete shock. She eventually continued scanning the pregnancy test. I could hear some snickering in the back of the line from some middle school boys who were clearly ditching school. I didn't mean to say what I said to the cashier out loud, but it kind of just came out, like word vomit. I began turning red and avoided looking up at her as I was swiping my card. When the receipt was finally put in my bag, I grabbed it and sped walk to my car. When I got in, I just sat there for a couple of minutes, scared of what the results were going to be. I knew I couldn't stay there for long, even though I wanted to. I had to pee on a stick and then dispose of it before my parents got home from work. I turned on my car.

I made my way to my room, staring at the pregnancy test box. My body didn't allow me to open it and take it out. The possibility of being pregnant made me panic. If I was, I don't know what I'd do. I tried envisioning scenarios of me having a baby, but none of them included me going to college while raising a kid from a guy that wasn't even my boyfriend. I started to think of my future, and how much it would change if I ended up having a baby. I had already been accepted into Stanford and have had Straight A's throughout my entire high school career. Before I made myself worry any more about something that was probably not going to happen, I ripped the box open, dropping it on the floor as I made my way into my bathroom.

The only thing at this point that was holding me back from taking the test was that I didn't need to pee. I turned on the faucet, hoping that the sight of water pouring would make me have to go, but it didn't work. I sat in an awkward position, my hand between my legs with a magic stick that told you if you had another human taking over your insides or not. About 7 minutes later, I felt my bladder wanting to release itself. After peeing on the stick, I put the cap that went over the once clean part of the stick to ensure I wouldn't get any urine on my hands. I flushed the toilet, set the pregnancy test on the sink counter, and washed my hands. The box said it would take at least five minutes before the results showed. I set an alarm on my phone thinking that I would forget about the test. But how could I? This stick will be telling me my future and whether or not another being that forms inside of me was going to be a part of it. It was the longest five minutes of my life. I grabbed the torn box from the ground to go over what the little lines that appeared on the pregnancy test meant. One line meant that I wasn't knocked up, and two lines meant I was. I heard my phone play my alarm. It was time.

I slowly approached the bathroom like those dumb people in horror movies that approach the sound that comes from what will eventually be the place where they die. I grabbed the pregnancy test with my eyes closed, not ready for the results I was about to see. When I finally gathered all the courage that was in my body, I opened my eyes. There was two lines. And the more I stared at the two lines, it felt like the stick was burning through my skin, interweaving the results into my skin, making my body and heart ache. My first approach was denying it. I mean, pregnancy test can be inaccurate, it's not too rare, right? Then, I tried shaking it as if it were an Etch O Sketch, thinking that one of the lines would erase. My heart started pounding harder and harder by the second. I could feel my world start to crumble. Something in me told me that this pregnancy was telling the truth, that there was in fact a product of mine and Tory's drunken mistake. I collapsed to my knees and began wailing. I didn't know how I was going to approach my parent's about this. They didn't even know that I stayed at Troy's. They flipped shit when I was gone and didn't tell them. How were they going to react when they realized that not only did I sneak out, but that I slept over at a boy's house and that we had sex. Also the fact that they were going to be grandparents. How was Troy going to react? But most importantly, how was I going to tell Chad that I was pregnant with his best friend's baby when he didn't even know that I cheated on him?


	4. Chapter 4

I looked at the clock. it was 2:45PM, meaning that Troy would be getting out of school soon. I wiped away the tears from my eyes with my hand to clear my vision, and texted Troy.

"Hey, can you come over after school? I need to tell you something."

He texted back almost instantaneously.

"Yeah, sure. :)"

I sat on my bed and turned on the T.V to try to distract myself from reality. Of course, Teen Mom was the first thing to pop up. I wanted to shout, but didn't want the neighbors to call the cops, thinking someone was being murdered in the house. I stared at the bathroom counter. The pregnancy test was still sitting on it. I still couldn't wrap my mind around me being pregnant. Especially with Troy. It was a reality I never thought I would be a part of.

I was laying in bed with the T.V off because I decided that that only reminded me more of what was going on. It was either the T.V shows that had someone pregnant in them, or baby commercials. My thoughts were distracted by the sound of a car door outside. I looked out my window and saw Troy walking up to my door. He was wearing a blue striped shirt with some jeans. I put on some decent looking clothes and made my way downstairs.

I beat Troy to the door but waited for him to knock so I didn't seem like an over-excited creep, even though excitement was the last thing I was feeling right now.

 _Knock, knock._

I took a deep breath and tried to keep my shit together so that I wouldn't scare Troy right off that bat.

Troy was looking at the neighborhood as he was waiting, and when he heard the door open, he directed his attention to me. A smile took over his face. To make everything seem like it was fine, I decided to act like we used to before all of this happened.

"Yo. What up MTV? My name is Gabriella Montez and this is my crib."

Troy busted out laughing. His blue eyes sparkled.

"Man, I missed you."

He went in for a hug without me realizing, so I just stood there before my delayed attempt to hug him back occurred. Troy took it the wrong way, and instead awkwardly made it seem like he was trying to brush his fingers through his hair.

"I guess we still aren't friends?" He chuckled.

I couldn't help but smile. He had some sort of charm to him that never failed to make my mood brighten up. I missed it.

"Sooo?"

"Oh, yeah! Sorry! Come in," I said panicked.

"Nice crib you got," he looked at me and smiled.

I just chuckled. Our reunion made me almost forget why I asked him to come. Until he reminded me.

"Hey Gabs, have you been crying?"

"No, why?" I tried to play it off cool.

"Your eyes just seem really puffy," he seemed concerned.

" _Shit_ ," I mumbled, unaware that he could here me.

"Is what you need to tell me _that_ bad?

"Just, come with me."

I guided the way to my room where I knew that all of our giggles and smiles would disappear. My heart was racing. I scared of the reaction Troy might get. As we entered my room, Troy made his way to my bed and sat down, grabbing a pillow and putting it on his lap. He looked worried. I went in the bathroom and tears started flooding my eyes when I saw the pregnancy test. I picked it up, put my hands behind my back, and made my way over to Troy. He noticed my tears.

"Hey, hey, hey. What's wrong?" He stood up and hugged me, wiping away my tears.

I handed him the stick just to get everything over with. He grabbed it, but it took him a while to process what exactly was in his hand before he dropped it.

"There isn't pee on that, right?!"

"Really Troy, out of all the fucking things to worry about right now, that's your main concern?"

"Sorry. I just really don't want pee on my hands. At least not right now," he looked at me with a smirk on his face. I knew that he was trying to make me feel better, but I also knew that what was on that stick would change everything.

"No, of course there's no pee on it. There's a cap that goes over that part. But can you please just look at the fucking test?"

Anxiety was starting to creep into my skin as I saw him pick up the pregnancy test from the floor. His face scrunched up in confusion. He looked up at me.

"What does this mean?" His voice was shaky. I knew that something in him told him that those two lines were what he was hoping not to see.

"I-I'm pregnant," my voice cracked.

I saw Troy's beautiful blue eyes start to water. He had his mouth open like he was about to say something, but nothing came out. He went and sat on my bed, his elbows on his knees, hands on his head, and fingers entangled in his hair.

"Look, Troy, you don't have to take responsibility. You don't have to be a part of the baby's life. I-I know all of the good scholarships you've received and I'd hate to see you have to give them up-," my rambling was interrupted.

" _Are you crazy_?" Troy said. At first I thought he was going to suggest I abort it or something. I didn't know how to take his response.

"What do you mean?"

"Of course I'm going to take responsibility! We're both equally responsible for that night. I'm not just going to let you take the consequences for everything."

I sighed in relief.

"I honestly thought you were going to tell me to kill it."

"Oh my God, _no_!" He pulled me into my his arms and hugged me tightly. "Look, we'll figure something out, okay?" He kissed my forehead.

I felt a sense of relief standing in Troy's arms, knowing that he wasn't angry about the whole thing. But, there was still so many people I had to tell. I started to tense up at the realization that this was only the beginning. Troy must have felt it because he let go of me and looked at me, concerned. It's like he could read my mind.

"You haven't told Chad about anything yet, have you?" He asked in a perturbed tone.

I shook my head, looking at the ground.

Troy raised his arm and set his hand on his head. He started walking back and forth in my room. I could tell he was just as unsettled as I was. He finally came up to me after what seemed to be an eternity.

"Okay, look. We can all meet up together in a cafe or something. We'll break the news to him. He's obviously gonna be upset, but we're going to have to keep him calm. I'll be there with you just in case he wants to punch someone's face. I'll volunteer because I don't want you getting hurt, alright? Does that seem like an okay idea?"

"Better than what I could have come up with."

"It's going to be okay, Gabs," he placed his hand on my shoulder, and I just looked into his eyes, "Yeah, he's gonna hate us, but knowing him, he'll understand sooner or later. We just gotta give him time."

I smiled. Inviting was the best decision I had made so far. I hugged him.

"We're dumb as shit," I said, my voice muffled because my face was in Troy's chest.

"I know," Troy laughed, "I know."


	5. Chapter 5

I decided to go to school the next day now that I knew that I didn't have the stomach flu. My mom tried to convince me to stay, saying that the stomach flu takes a couple of days to cure and that I'd be vomiting everywhere. Little did she know that the vomiting was actually morning sickness. It was difficult trying to convince her that I'd be fine without telling her what was actually going on with my body. But I figured that right now wouldn't be the best time to spill the beans because her and dad were still kind of upset about the whole sneaking out thing. If I told them, then I'm basically asking to die. I drove to school and once I got to the parking lot, I decided to just sit there and stay calm. It was Friday, which was the most exciting day of the week, but I knew that my Friday would still consist of lying to Chad.

"Only one more day," I whispered to myself.

I grabbed my backpack and finally decided to make my way to first period. I had Chemistry. I didn't particularly hate the class, but the dumb idiots in it made me dread it. As long as Chad wasn't in it, I'd be cool. When I walked in, Taylor immediately jumped up and made her way to me, with a huge smile on her face.

"Gabriella!" She proceeded to hug me while still squealing. I was so confused with everything.

"Hey!" I tried to sound as excited as her, but I failed. Luckily, she didn't seem to notice.

"Oh my gosh! I know you may have been only gone for one day, but it felt like an eternity in this class," she brought her mouth closer to my ear and whispered, "Everybody in this damn class is a fool. I had to work with Jason on a lab we had yesterday and that boy is dumber than you would've ever thought."

We shared a laugh as she grabbed my hand and guided me to our seats. I sat down and sighed, looking at the exhausting worksheet in front of us.

"It's gonna be a _long_ day."

"Girl, I know. But it's Friday! You gotta be excited for that!"

I smiled even though deep down inside I knew I wasn't. It was Friday, meaning that tomorrow would be the big reveal to Chad about what happened. The only good thing was that Troy was going to be there. At least I knew I wasn't alone in this process of making people hate me.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Taylor interrupted my thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Why?"

"Well, usually you're always worried about completing the work before class ends, and today you just kind of seem out of it."

"Oh, no. I'm fine. Trust me." I tried to pull a convincing smile, but it was harder than it seemed.

"Look Gabriella, you can talk to me. If there is anything bothering you, I'm a text away, alright? Don' hesitate. I got your back girl."

"Thanks. I really appreciate it," I said as I flashed the first real smile since the day Troy found out we were going to be parents.

The bell rang right after the conversation with Taylor. I threw my things in my backpack and dreadfully walked to second period, English class. Chad was in that class, and knowing him, he was probably right outside of the Chemistry class door. I was right.

"Hey babe!" Chad hugged me tightly. I returned the hug.

"Hey."

He leaned in for a kiss, but for some reason I didn't want to kiss him back. Obviously I had to, but I didn't feel that connection between us. I started to worry that maybe I was making myself a victim in this. Like if it was somehow Chad's fault that I was pregnant with Troy's baby. I cleared my head from those thoughts, knowing that I was the last person to be considered "the victim" in this situation.

Chad look concerned, as if he knew that the kiss wasn't real. We continued walking to second hour together. He didn't say anything, but I could tell by his face expression that he knew something was wrong with me. He continued looking at me, examining if maybe somewhere on my body there was an answer to his unknown question. I felt myself tense up.

"Hey Gabriella," he stopped in the middle of the hallway, grabbed my hand and directed us to the side. "So, I just have a question for you, a-and I want you to answer honestly, okay?"

I just nodded, but I was a nervous wreck on the inside. Maybe he heard from someone that saw me and Troy walking out of the party.

"So," he continued, "Are we, like, still a thing? I mean, lately you've just seemed so distant from me. You hardly ever respond to my messages. It's like you're pushing me away. And I keep on trying to think of the things I could have possibly done wrong for you to be mad at me, but nothing pops up."

I continued staring at him. I could feel the tears of guilt start to form in my eyes. In that very instant, I hated myself. I hated myself for making Chad think that he was the one that did something wrong. I hated myself for cheating on him with his best friend. But I hated myself most for being a liar.

"So, are we?" He asked again. I could see the tears start to flood his eyes.

"Of course!" I said with the best attempt at having a happy tone to voice.

He looked at me, his frown transforming into a smile. He hugged me tightly again, and then held my hand as we continued to walk to second period. My heart inside of my chest was about to burst out. How was I going to tell him that I cheated on him with Troy when I just finished telling him that everything is the same between us? That all the feelings that were once there are still there. How was he going to react when he finds out that he isn't the cause for my keeping of distance? That he was in fact the victim in a fucked up situation, not the villain. I was able to keep calm on the outside, but inside my thoughts and anxiety were suffocating me.

Troy and I met the next day, Saturday. It had finally come to the moment both of us had been dreading. Troy came over to my house so that we can both agree on the plans. We were sitting in my room. I began shaking as we were going over what needed to happen.

"What's wrong Gabs? You're shaking like crazy."

I knew that with Troy I can just let out the ugly crying that I had kept bottled up inside of me. I looked at his worried face, and the tears just started coming out.

"Chad. He doesn't deserve this." I almost shouted. Troy hugged me, comforting me,

"I know he doesn't. No one does. But sometimes people fuck up and hurt other people's feelings. That's just how life is. It's inevitable."

"He came up to me yesterday. He was so worried that I was going to break things off. He was about to cry! And I told him that everything was fine between us. I lied to his face. And the worst part is that he thinks he's the one that did something wrong." I continued sobbing on Troy's chest.

"In order to avoid making things get worse and make us get entangled in a pool of lies, we're going to have to tell him. The sooner, the better," He kissed my forehead, "It's going to be hard telling him that we've betrayed him, but at least we would have told him instead of making him fall harder for you while he's completely unaware that you carry a child that isn't his."

I just nodded. He was right. We had to go on with this plan. I grabbed my phone and texted Chad to meet us at a cafe that wasn't too far from here. I grabbed my keys and purse, and along with Troy, I got in my car and drove to the place where the truth would be revealed.

Troy and I made our way to a booth in the back where there wouldn't be many people to overhear the conversation that was about to go down. Troy ordered coffee, and I ordered hot cocoa, knowing that caffeine is bad for me. I clenched my hands together, making the grip harder and harder as the time went on. About five minutes later, I saw Chad's car roll up and park in front of the cafe. He walked in, looking for me and when he did, he looked confused.

"You didn't tell me that Troy would be here," he said as he was fist bumping Troy, "So what did you want to talk about?"

I looked down at my cup of hot cocoa and took a deep breath.A couple of minutes passed by before Chad interrupted the silence.

"Can you guys just please tell me what's going on?" Chad said impatiently.

Without thinking I blurted out, "I'm pregnant."

Chad look at me, shocked and confused. "Wh-what? How? How is that even possibly if we've never-," he stopped his sentence. Before he continued rambling, I just got straight to the point.

"Do you remember the party Adrian had a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I snuck out of my house and went to it."

"You told me that you were studying for an important test. I asked you if you wanted to watch a movie," he was already growing infuriated.

"I'm sorry I lied to you about that. I just really wanted to have fun and I knew that you wouldn't be up for it, so I went with Troy."

"Okay, but what the fuck does this have to do with you being pregnant?"

"I drank way too much. I got blackout drunk, so I don't remember anything from that night, but when I woke up, I was in someone's bed naked," a long pause, "It was Troy's. So when I put two and two together, I found out that we had obviously had sex-"

"Troy, you fucked my girl?!" Chad jumped out of his chair, pushing the table causing the drinks to almost spill. Everyone in the cafe looked our way.

"Look, I'm so incredibly sorry! I was drunk as shit that night, too! You know I wouldn't ever betray you like that!" Troy tried to apologize, but Chad didn't seem interested.

"What the fuck?! And now you got her pregnant?! When the fuck were you planning to tell me Gabriella, _HUH_?! Were you just gonna let me be the dumb ass that continues loving you even though you know damn well you were out being a fucking slut?!"

" _HEY_! Chad, don't you dare call her that!" Tory defended me, but Chad ended up pushing him back, almost as if to start a fight.

"You guys need to get out of here, now!" One of the waitresses yelled.

Chad, breathing hard with fury, just looked at us. "Fuck you! Fuck both of you! Oh wait, you both were already fucking each other, huh?"

He stormed out of the diner, got in his car and slammed the door. He left before I had the chance to apologize to him. I just stayed in my seat, crying frantically.


	6. Chapter 6

The weekend seemed to fly by, which was terrible. By this time, I bet a lot of people have found out what happened between Troy, Chad, and I. After Chad left the cafe Saturday, I decided to go home and contemplate life. At first I wanted to hate Chad. But as I started getting out of my anger stage, I realized that he had every right to react the way he did. I had lied to his face for such a long time. The truth must have hit him like a truck. I stayed in my room the entire day on Sunday. My parent's began to worry as to why I wasn't eating, so I told them that me and Chad broke up and left it at that. One drunken night had the ability to change my life, and the consequences were going to follow me for the rest of my life.

I was finally able to sleep, but only two hours later the bitter sound of my alarm clock rang in my ears. I laid in bed for a couple more minutes before I got up to face the day. I wasn't looking forward to school. I wasn't looking forward to having to see Chad's eyes burning a hole through my head with hatred in second hour. But I knew that either way I was going to have to go through the stares in East High School's hallway. As soon as I sat up on the edge of my bed, I could feel something come up my throat. I knew it wasn't food because I hadn't eaten for a whole day. I ran to my bathroom and threw up a yellow substance. Stomach acid. I was so sick and tired of this throwing up shit. It made it harder to cover up the truth from my parents. And with the thought of that, my mom came into my bathroom, robe and everything.

"Hun, you're still not feeling good?" She came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder while I was rinsing out my mouth.

I wiped my lips with my hand. "No, no. I feel good. I think that maybe something I ate yesterday must have made my stomach upset."

"But you didn't eat yesterday," my mom replied confused, but totally aware that I was hiding something from her. "Do you just vomit in the mornings or throughout the day?"

"Listen, mom, I really gotta get ready for school. I don't want to be late to first hour because I know the chemistry teacher will flip shit." I said as I walked past her, trying at all costs to avoid this conversation.

"Language!" My mom replied in a stern voice and caught up to me. "Is there something you're hiding from me?"

"Look, maybe I threw up because I'm so stressed at school and Chad and I just broke up and things aren't going too great here and me and Troy are basically fuck-" I stopped myself from telling too much.

"What?"

"Mom, if you could just please leave my room, that'd be great."

"First of all Gabriella, this is my house and I have every right to enter your room and stay here if I please. Second of all, what's this about you and Troy?"

"Mom, it's nothing, honestly, okay?"

"If something is going on you need to tell me."

"If something were going on, you and dad would be the last to hear about it," I sat on my bed, already drained of energy.

My mom crossed her arms, still standing, "And why is that?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you two are the least understanding people ever?"

My mom just stood there, no words coming out of her mouth, nothing. I ended up breaking the silence because I couldn't hold in the anger I've kept bottled inside of me any longer.

"You think that my intention that night was to sneak out and not come home until the day after? You and dad don't seem to understand that I'm just a teenager. Okay? Teenagers are meant to fuck up, they're meant to make mistakes, and disobey their parents. I just wanted a little taste of that. I wanted to see what it was like to actually have fun. I wanted to see if I could get away with it and if I couldn't, I wanted to see what it was like to be scolded at for reasons other than getting a bad grade on one of my test. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy and all, but I wanted to live," My voice cracked, "I guess you guys should be proud that you didn't raise me to believe that life was supposed to be about living." I started to cry.

My mom sat next to me and hugged me. I could hear her sniffling a little bit.

"Mom, I'm so sorry," I let out in the midst of sobbing.

"It's okay sweetie. I know you just wanted to let loose for a little bit. Maybe sneaking out wasn't the best choice to pursue that, but you're forgiven."

"Not about that."

My mom slid her hands off of me and just looked at me, concerned and worried to hear what was about to come out of my mouth.

"You're pregnant, aren't you?"

I looked up at her, my eyes filled with tears, my face wet from the previous ones, and my lip quivered. I just nodded.

She stood up and put her hand on her temples. She walked back and forth, uttering words that I couldn't make out.

"What? When? HOW?"

Through my sobbing, I was able to for barely understandable words. "It was at the party the night I snuck out. I ended drinking more than I could handle. I ended up waking up in someone's bed with obvious signs that we had just had sex."

"Was it Chad's? Is that why he broke up with you? Because all of a sudden his baby has become your responsibility?!"

"No, it wasn't his bed. It was," I hesitated saying the name, but my mom already seemed to know it.

"Troy's?"

"Yeah."

My mom just sighed, as if all of this news had just emotionally exhausted her. "You need to get ready for school." I could hear her trying to hide the sadness and disappointment in her voice. She got up and started to walk out of my room.

"Hey mom?" She turned around. "Could you please not tell dad? At least not yet. I want to be the one who does it."

She just nodded and closed the door behind her. I bet she thinks this is all somehow her fault, for not raising me better, and that's what made me feel worse. Maybe that whole speech before telling her the truth wasn't the best way to start everything. I was absolutely terrified to see my dad's reaction, since he was always the one to overreact and have my mom calm him down. But for now, all that I needed to worry about was how school was going to go after telling Chad everything.

I walked into first period and, like always, the first person to greet me was Taylor. But, this time she didn't have that contagious smile, she had a perturbed look.

"Heeeey Gabriella," she tried to smile, but I knew that was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Hey," I said as I sat down.

She made sure no one was looking or was within distance of overhearing us, then she came closer to me. "Is there something you want to tell me?" She whispered into my ear, her sharp words cutting through my heart

I shook my head, then she continued whispering. "Well, there's this terrible rumor going around that you cheated on Chad with another guy and that you're now gonna be having his baby. And the person that told me was that bitch Sharpay. I just told her 'No, I know my girl. She isn't like that.' and then she was like-"

I interrupted her mid sentence. "It's not a rumor," I whispered, but was looking down at my nails scraping off the nail polish.

"Wait, what?" Taylor almost yelled, and everyone looked at us.

"Girls, I know it's Monday and you guys probably haven't seen each other all weekend and you've just been waiting to gossip, but could you please keep it down?" The chemistry teacher scolded. He already had his panties up in a bunch and we weren't even five minutes into the class.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Taylor went back to whispering.

"I didn't tell anyone. I was too scared."

"You have to tell me anything. How about we ditch second to go to Starbucks and just talk?"

"Starbucks? Really?"

"Well, what other damn place is near by?"

"Alright. I guess that's better than going to second and having to face Chad."

"Does he know?"

"I'll tell you later."

We went back to taking notes and doing worksheets, just like we did everyday. By I could see that Taylor was antsy.

The bell that told us that we were over with the first section of hell rang and Taylor grabbed my arm and started speed walking to her car. As we approached the parking lot, she was just babbling away.

"When did this all happen? Are you sure that you actually are pregnant? Who all knows?"

"Look, once you calm down and we're at Starbucks I'll tell you everything that happened."

When we got our drinks, we sat down outside to enjoy the beautiful day and also have a little bit more privacy. I proceeded to tell her everything that happened: the night of the party, taking the pregnancy, telling Troy, telling Chad, and eventually telling my mom.

"You told you mom?! How did she react? I bet she totally flipped shit on you."

I took a sip. "She was more disappointed than angry. I guess at this point she's just lost all hope in me and my future." I looked down at the concrete.

"I'm sorry Gabriella. But don't for one second think that just because you're having a baby, you're going to all of a sudden fail on accomplishing your dreams and going to college and everything."

"I'm trying not to, but it's kind of complicated to do all that while raising a child."

"Wait, so you're gonna keep it?" Taylor asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought you were just gonna give it up for adoption."

Adoption was an option that hadn't crossed my mind. In a way, it was the best way to go with this. I was way too young to have a child. Hell, I even managed to "kill" my fake robot baby that I had in health class freshman year.

"I'd have to talk to Troy about everything first. I mean, it's his baby, too."

"Fair enough. Have you told your dad yet."

"Fuck no," I responded, looking at Taylor as if she were some kind of lunatic, 'You out of all people know how my dad is. He gets so angry over the littlest shit and this is something big."

"Like that time he yelled at you for getting a C- on your test."

We both shared a laugh. At the time, getting yelled at like that by my dad was the scariest thing. I remember crying for 3 nights straight because of how infuriated he got. But now, he's going to wish that I got another C on my test rather than me being pregnant. My smile transformed into a frown. Taylor noticed and hugged me, her cold drink touching my arm.

"It's all gonna get better. Don't worry too much or else you're gonna get wrinkles on the gorgeous face." I smiled at her and continued drinking my iced tea.

After a while, we decided to go back to school for third period. As I walked to the trash can in the hallway to throw away my drink, I saw Sharpay walking. She was wearing a red shirt with too many fake diamonds on it, and had obnoxious gold pants on. To her, it was designer clothes, to me, it was an atrocity. She approached me, her high heels making too much noise with every step.

"I never saw you as the type to get pregnant in high school, especially from a guy that isn't your boyfriend," she said with a flip over her blonde hair. I just rolled my eyes and tried to walk past her, but she blocked the way. I almost suffocated in her Coco Chanel perfume.

"I guess that little miss good girl was a whore all this time," she grabbed a strand of my hair and started twirling it, but I quickly smacked her hand away.

"Fuck you Sharpay."

"So, who's the dad, hmm?"

Out of nowhere, Troy came along and saw that a circle was starting to form around us. He made his way to me and stood next to me.

"Well hello Troy," Sharpay greeted him in horrendously flirtatious voice.

"What the fuck are you doing Sharpay?" He responded.

"Haven't you heard? You're little friend over there is a skank. She cheated on you best friend and got pregnant from some other guy." Sharpay smirked.

"Guess that makes two of you."

The hallways echoed in the crowds "Oooh".

"What?" Sharpay asked, nervousness flooding her voice.

"Don't fucking play dumb Sharpay. You know how many of the guys on the basketball team talk about their one night stands with you? You throw your body around to all of them. And I know that you were pregnant but your mommy and daddy didn't want you to embarrass them, so you had an abortion." Sharpay gasped, but Troy continued, "So if anything Sharpay, you should be the last one to try and humiliate Gabriella for a mistake she, sorry let me correct myself, WE both made and shut the fuck up."

The crowd went wild. But soon, the teachers interrupted them and told all of them to go to class. I saw Sharpay, who was still in disbelief that her secret was out to everyone, start to cry and tell her friends that her crush was the father of my child. I felt a tad bit bad for her, but she brought it on herself. Troy grabbed my shoulders and turned me towards him. "Are you alright? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for doing that back there. If you hadn't come, I would have probably fought her."

"I know. That's why I'm glad I saw what was going on before anything happened to you and the baby."

Something in me just wanted to kiss him, but I knew that there was a huge chance that it was just the fact that he's protected me so much lately. I ignored that feeling and just thanked him again, and then made my way to class.

After school, Troy ran up to me before I got in my car.

"Hey Gabs," he said, a little out of breath.

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out or something. It's a beautiful day out, so I was kind of thinking that we should have a picnic in a park." he sounded so nervous.

"Troy Bolton, are you asking me out on a date?" My smile was impossible to hide.

"What me? No. I just wanted to talk." He started blushing.

"Alright. Come on, let's go get some Chipotle because I've been craving it for a while now."

"I'm glad you aren't like the other girls who try to hide the fact that they're hungry and eat a salad instead."

I put on my sunglasses. "Well part of that is because I'm pregnant and just don't give a fuck if I gain weight or not because it's gonna happen sooner or later."

Our laughs filled the air and we drove off. When we arrived to the park after getting our huge burritos, we sat under a tree that provided the best shade. I took a huge bite out of mine.

"Mmmm," I moaned.

"You act like you haven't eaten in ages." He chuckled.

"I didn't eat on Sunday, so in a way I haven't."

We took a few more bites of our food before I brought up what had happened this morning.

"Oh Troy, I forgot to tell you," I swallowed the piece of burrito that was in my mouth, "So this morning mom walked in on me vomiting. We started talking and eventually I ended up telling her I was pregnant."

Troy's eyes widened. "How did she react?"

"Well, I guess the good news is that she isn't out on the hunt to chop your dick off. But, she is disappointed in me."

Troy giggled, but then got serious again. "So does that mean your dad knows?"

"He doesn't know yet. I felt like it would only be fair that I told him personally."

"I can be with you if you'd like."

"Maybe that's not the smartest idea. Knowing my dad, he'll punch you in the wiener for sure."

After finishing our burritos and being stuffed, we laid down on the grass together. Troy's hands behind his head, and my hands on my stomach.

"So I was talking to Taylor about everything, and she mentioned adoption," Troy didn't say anything, so I just went on. "I was thinking about it, and maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea. I mean, raising a kid is hard, especially for people who are still, in a way, a kid themselves. I just wanted to see your opinion on it."

"Well, I don't really like the idea of just giving our child away for adoption like if it was a puppy we're leaving at shelter. I mean, who knows if he or she will ever get adopted, ya know? But I guess only time will tell what is the best option for us."

"Yeah, I agree." I repositioned myself and rested my head on his bicep, and my hand on his chest. Something about this felt so right. We laid there in comfortable silence, listening to the birds chirp and letting the calm wind cool us off.


	7. Chapter 7

After the very eventful Monday, the rest of the week wasn't too bad. Sharpay stopped making snarky comments after her first attempt at trying to humiliate me. There were still stares and whispers as I walked through the hallway every passing period. It sucked having the whole world know that you were pregnant. I always dread when a class ends because I knew that I was going to have to go through the embarrassment. I always tried to walk fast through the hallways, but not too fast because I didn't want people to think I was a crack addict. But, no matter how fast I walked, it wasn't fast enough. I always looked at people at the wrong time, that being when they were looking at me and gossiping with their friends. Sometimes Troy would tag along and all of a sudden the opinions of people didn't care. It's like if my worries and anxiety evaporated into thin air when Troy was in my presence. Second period was by far the worst part of my day. It seemed like Chad didn't care about my presence, but sometimes I'd catch him looking at me. His expression is mixed between sad that we are no longer together and absolute fury towards me. I tried to smile a couple of times at him, but he would just roll his eyes, shake his head, and look away. At that point I was sure that we were never going to be anything to each other anymore, not even friends.

Troy and I ended up hanging out everyday after school that week. I always got impatient at the end of the day, squirming in my desk last period because I couldn't wait to see him and just vent out to him about how stupid people are. We always went to a low key spot in the park where we knew people wouldn't really be surrounding us. Every time we'd grow silent, I'd look at the kids play in the park with excitement and adrenaline running through their bodies as their souls were let free. There was a couple of times where I looked over at Troy and saw him smiling at the crazy kids running around the playground playing their little dumb games. I would always admire him in those little moments I had where I could just look at him. His strong jaw line, the way he squinted his eyes whenever he smile, and his melodic laugh. God, how I loved his laugh. Every second I was with him was time well spent. When we were together, reality was erased from my brain and in its place there was a beautiful fairy tale drawn out. A fairy tale where I wasn't pregnant and where I was madly in love with Troy. But I knew that when I would go home, my happiness would disappear and be replaced but the disappointment my mom injected into my heart every time she looked at me. And I knew that soon, my dad would be giving me the same look, to be more specific, Friday would be the start of it.

The end of the week finally came and caught me off guard. Troy and I decided to go to the park before we go to my house. The past couple of days I have been telling Troy about my plan to tell my dad, and every time I did, he would insist that he had to be there when I told my dad. After countless attempts of trying to convince me, I finally gave in and let him be a part of it. My response to his reaction and feeling of achievement was, "I think you just want to die and leave me to deal with all of this don't you?"

"No, of course not. If I wanted to die, I would want to die in a cool way. Maybe have Clint Eastwood shoot me while Morgan Freeman narrates it. Now that'd be badass! So if ever you think that I want to die and find out that I died that exact same way, you can say you were right."

"What would I say at your funeral? 'Troy was a good man and I have proof that his death was, in a way, suicide. He wanted to leave me and his child to bear through the evil world alone so that he could watch us from heaven or, most likely, hell, to laugh at us.'"

"Hey, I wouldn't go to hell!"

"You're a fornicator!"

"Well, in that case, I guess I'll see you there."

We started cracking up when suddenly our faces came close to each other. Our laughs faded and we stared deeply into each other's eyes. The desire to kiss him had never been so strong, and I could see by his eyes, he wanted to. As he started getting closer, I couldn't help but close my eyes and slowly lean in. But, before anything could happened, I backed away and cleared my throat. I knew that it was probably not the best idea to let myself fall for someone else again.

"Um, we should get going," I said nervously.

"Yeah, yeah we should," Troy said, a bit disappointed, "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

I got up quickly and made my way to my car, leaving Troy behind. I got in and took a deep breath. There was something in me regretting the fact that I didn't kiss him at that moment. There was something so magical that I felt. I felt sparks in my brain and butterflies in my stomach. It was a sensation I hadn't felt in such a long time. But yet, I felt wrong even thinking about it. That was Chad's best friend at one point, and for me to start developing feeling for him would only make Chad more upset. I had already done too much damage. I saw Troy walking up the little hill and make his way to my car. He got in and we made our way on a silent journey to my house. As I entered my neighborhood, it hit me that we were about to tell my dad something that would probably make him disown me. My body began to shake at the thought of his reaction. I pulled into the driveway and made my way into my house. It was time.

I walked into the front door with Troy right behind me. My mom was making her way to the couch when she saw us enter. There were no words, just a simple smile. But as soon as she saw Troy, it disappeared. Troy, being the gentleman he is and not having a care in the world if someone hates him or not, acted as if everything were the same.

"Hey Mrs. Montez, nice to see you."

My mom just flashed him a quick little smile, then made her way to the kitchen. She was preparing dinner, although I knew most likely none of us were going to eat. Troy sat down on the couch, scrolling through his phone, while entered the kitchen.

"Hey mom, is dad home?"

"He's out back, he should come in in a couple of minutes," she said, not looking up from the stove where she was stirring the food.

"Okey dokey." I went back to go sit with Troy, but as soon as I did, I heard my dad walk in as he was fussing about the garden.

"I tell ya honey, those flowers are giving me such a hard time. They keep dying on me and-" he stopped as soon as he saw Troy sitting on the couch.

"Hey Troy! What a pleasant surprise! Long time no see. How you been?" My dad greeted Troy as they shook hands and then went in for a hug.

"I've been alright Mr. Montez. How 'bout yourself?"

"Work's been kicking my ass, but other than that, it's all been good. How's your dad?"

"Ah, he's doing great."

"Still coaching basketball at your guys' school?"

"Yep."

"Good. That's good. Listen, if you wanna stay over for dinner, we'll be more than happy to have you. My wife's making her signature dish tonight. You gotta try it. "

"Thank, Mr. Montez," my mom walked in from the kitchen and crossed her arms as she stood next to my dad, "but Gabriella and I actually have something we'd like to talk to you about. If that's okay with you, of course."

"Yeah sure, no problem," my dad said, completely unaware of what was about to hit him.

"I suggest you sit down for this," my mom said, in the same monotonous tone she always had when she was pissed off.

"Alright?" My dad said as he made his way to the couch and sat down. He took off his hat and gardening gloves. "So, what's this you guys want to talk about?"

I could hear the shift in his voice as soon as my mom told him to sit down. He grew more and more concerned every second, which made even more scared to open my mouth and tell him that I'm pregnant.

"I swear Gabriella, if you tell me you did bad on the test that you skipped studying for to go to that stupid party, you're going to be grounded for a long time."

"Dad, it's not that. Although I wish it as," I said, my voice extremely shaky.

"What could be worse than that?"

Well, you're about to find out, I thought to myself.

"It has to do with the night I snuck out." I saw my dad roll his eyes. By just mentioning that topic he grows annoyed. "Well, before I tell you anything else, I just want to say that I was drinking that night."

"Are you fucking serious?!"

I just nodded.

"Great. Well isn't that just fucking great! Now I have a delinquent AND an alcoholic as a daughter!" He got up off the couch and was about to leave the room. I could tell that he couldn't even look at me

"Wait! That's not all."

He turned around and threw his hands in the air. "What? Now you're gonna tell me that you slept with someone and got pregnant? Like if I didn't have a pathetic ass daughter already!" He chuckled in a mocking way, not suspecting that he had just said the truth. The sound of the food cooking filled the room. There was not one word said, that is, until my dad figured out what the silence meant. Tears started streaming down my face.

"You're joking right? You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I began sobbing. He was definitely the most furious I had ever seen him. "You fucking whore! I raised you better than this and even made sure that you grew up in an environment far away from that type of shit!" Every word he said was screamed at the top of his lungs. He stomped towards me and grabbed my jaw, yanking it so that I would look at his face.

"You're gonna tell me who the fuck the father is right now! Or do you not know who it is?" His voice was fully outraged.

"It's me, Mr. Montez! I'm the father. Now can you please let her go?! You're hurting her!" Troy stepped, but instantaneously my dad let go of my jaw and got a hold of Troy's neck.

"Dad! Stop!"

"You son of a bitch!" My dad yelled in Troy's face. Luckily, Troy was strong enough to push my dad away. He rubbed his neck and gasped for air.

My dad backed away, and then came back. "Troy, I fucking let you into my house, treated you as a son, and this is how you fucking repay me? By getting my daughter pregnant?!"

"Look," Tory was still struggling to breathe, " I understand that you're mad. It was a mistake! It was never our intention to even sleep together! We're both extremely sorry. I can't even find words to express how bad I feel! But I just want you to know that I will support her!"

"Get the fuck out of my house," my dad said, finally talking in a normal, inside voice.

"I'm sorry," Troy repeated.

"Just get the fuck out. I don't want you anywhere near my daughter, you understand? I'll fucking kill you if you ever step foot in here again."

"You can't keep me away from her. That's my fucking child in there and I will NEVER leave Gabriella or the baby's side." Troy started to choke up, " "And I don't care if I get killed in the process." With that, he walked out of the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Two weeks had passed since hell was let loose in my house. The amount of tension at this point was unbearable. I was grateful to leave to school every morning just to avoid being around my parents. This whole fighting thing has gotten to the point where we don't even sit at the same table to eat like we used to. My dad had basically disowned me, and he had barely said a word to me ever since I told him that I was pregnant. Troy, on the other hand, was the only at this point who truly made an effort to talk to me. But I ignored him. I figured that it would be safer that we maintain distance. So much time had gone by that before I knew it, I was already 8 weeks pregnant. I had had this growing anxiety and constant abandonment from the people I love for 8 weeks. My mother, although very upset with me, was still concerned about my health and the baby's health. One day as I was doing my homework, she came into my room and decided to sit next to me on my bed. It was actually quite calming. I missed talking to her.

"Alright, first things first, we're gonna need to schedule an appointment so you can get an ultrasound and a guess as to when the baby is due. We're going to need to get you some prenatal pills and make sure that your diet is healthy. That means no more Cheetos or any of that other junk you shove down your throat."

"Wait, I seriously can't have Cheetos?" I had an obsession with them ever since I was introduced to them in sixth grade.

"No Gabriella. Being pregnant is going to suck. Unless you want to gain 50 pounds like I did when I was pregnant with you, I suggest you start eating healthier."

"You gained 50 pounds?"

"Yes. I would eat a whole large pizza when I was 8 months pregnant. I even made your dad go and get pizza at 1AM because I was craving it." I chuckled at the thought of my mom gobbling up a whole pizza to herself. "Yeah, you might thinks it's funny but it sucked having to lose all that weight. By the time you were born, my ass was all jiggly and it wasn't cute. I just don't want that to happen to you Gabs."

We shared a laugh. It had been the first time that we had both seen the humor in all of this since I first told her. It was a relief knowing that maybe, just maybe, things would be okay. My mom left my room to go and make the appointment, and I felt some excitement run through my body. I was actually going to be able to see the thing that was growing inside me, and I couldn't wait.

School was, for the most part, back to normal. Chad seemed to no longer be angry or upset with me, but he still wasn't talking to me. Taylor and I started acting the way we used to in chemistry, neither loving nor hating the class. The stares had gone down now that people started to become more worried about the rumor that one of the teachers had been having a love affair with a student. The rumors had turned out to be true, and the girl had become the laughingstock of the school. I didn't engage in any of the name calling or spreading of rumors because I was once in her position. I mean, not that fucked up, but still, what I did was pretty bad. I felt sympathy for the chick, but she was stupid for having a relationship with a teacher. I kind of wished that my dad would've been there to see the police take down the teacher and escort the student out of the building. Then he would realize that I'm not the most fucked up child. But, I was convinced that there would be nothing to make the father-daughter relationship be the same as it used to be.

The day after, I had the appointment to go to the clinic and meet up with an ultrasound technician. I had been antsy all day. It had gotten to the point where at lunch, I didn't even have an appetite to eat. So instead, I decided to go outside and enjoy the cool breeze under a tree. It was September, meaning that the weather wasn't too cold yet, but there were definitely some clouds in the sky. I sat down and watched the distance ahead of me, thinking about the future and what exactly was going to happen with the baby. This is my last year in high school, and I was already scheduled to go to Stanford to study law, but no matter how hard I tried to envision me going, I couldn't. The zipper of my sweater was broken and it was getting chillier, so I grabbed both sides and wrapped the sweater tightly around me. In that instance, I felt a hand touch my shoulder and I looked up. It was Troy.

"Hey Gabriella."

"Yo." Troy decided to sit down next to. He had on a black hoodie with the East High logo on it. It really made his eye color pop out.

"Haven't talked to you in a while."

"I didn't really know if it would be safe approaching you after my dad almost tried to kill you." Troy chuckled and I continued to look down at the ground. I could sense his smile fading.

"Look, I'm really sorry about what happened that night Gabs, I didn't meant to tick your dad off like that, but he was hurting you and-"

I interrupted him, "It's not your fault that my dad can't control his anger."

He continued with what he was saying, "-and it hurt me to see someone hurt you like that. And Gabs, I do have some fault in it. I know about your dad's anger issues and I just kept on going at it."

I looked at Troy in the eyes and placed my hand on his knee. There was an instant warmth formed between our touch, "Troy if anything, you risked yourself to save me. I know I'm making this sound as if it were a life or death type of situation, but honestly, you made yourself the target so that he could let me go. Don't feel bad." I flashed a genuine smile at him, and he returned it. After a couple of minutes in silence, I decided to tell him about the appointment.

"So, today I'm going to see the baby through an ultrasound." Troy instantaneously lightened up.

"Are you going to get to find out what it is?"

"No," I said as I chuckled at how clueless he was about pregnancy. It was actually kind of cute. "I read somewhere that we don't get to know the sex of it until I'm about six months pregnant."

"Ah, so you've been reading?" Troy smirked at me.

"Well duh. I'm curious to see what's going on inside of me. I don't just want nature to do it's thing. I want to be engaging in the pregnancy and knowing about every step it takes to cook the bun in the oven. If the makes any sense."

"Gotcha. Kind of," he giggled, "Sooo, can I come?"

"Where?"

"To the ultrasound appointment thing."

"Eh, I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Why, is your dad going?"

"Nah, he has absolutely no interest in me or the baby. He acts as if we don't exist," I frowned and I looked down.

Troy grabbed me and pressed me against his chest. He smelt so good. "I'm sorry Gabs. He'll eventually come around and see that you're one of the best things to happen to anyone."

I let out a little giggle, "Sure. You'd be surprised how long he could hold grudges."

"Oh trust me, I do. Remember last year when I accidentally broke your window while playing basketball? He didn't even look at me for like 6 months. Even after I payed for the window and installation!"

"Maybe that's the reason he choked you. He was still mad about the window."

We started laughing loudly, and it earned us a couple of stares. I sat with my back leaned on the tree trunk and Troy made his way over to me, resting his head on my lap. I couldn't help but run my finger through his hair. It was so soft.

"So back to serious business," Troy said in the voice the could belong to a news reporter. "Can I go?"

I let out a sigh, but was actually pleased that he wanted to tag along. "I'd have to ask my mom first."

"Oh you and your little sigh. You know damn well you want me there." He smiled at me with his straight and pearly teeth as he looked up.

"I bet this is the worst angle to be looking at me."

"Why do you say that?" Troy continued smiling.

"I mean, for one, you can easily look up my nose and see if I have any boogers, second-" Troy interrupted me with his sudden head movement. He squinted his eyes and got a bit closer to my nose.

"Nope, coast is clear," he laid his head back on my lap.

"Anyways, before you so rudely interrupted me, whenever I look down, I can feel my chin create a second one. I can just imagine how horrendous I look."

"Oh Gabs, stop it. You always look beautiful," I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear, but I quickly hid it and pretended like I didn't hear that. Troy sat back up and put his arm around me.

"Are you just gonna act like you didn't hear that?"

"Hear what?"

He looked me in the eyes and came closer to my face. "You're beautiful Gabriella. No matter what angle I see you in."

"I bet you won't say that when I gain 50 pounds," I said in a soft and playful voice.

"There'll just be more you to love."

I giggled softly, unaware that we were both simultaneously getting closer to each other, as if we were about to kiss. I felt his lips slightly brush mine before the bell rang and interrupted us. We backed away from each other, both a little scared from the bell. We got up and casually walked to my class, as if we were not just about to kiss. We stopped right outside of the door.

"I'll ask my mom about after school and I'll text you what she says. If she says yes, we'll most likely come and pick you up."

"Alright, sounds great." He smiled and then waved as he walked away.

It was after school and I made my way home. I blasted the radio as "My Love" by Justin Timberlake was playing. It was the first time I had felt genuinely happy, all because of Troy. I started hearing the lyrics, I started to think about how sweet it would be for someone to dedicate that song to me. The first and only guy that I thought of to do that was Troy. I got butterflies in my stomach just at the thought of him. I smiled to myself and parked in the driveway.

I got out of my car and the first person I saw when I entered through the door was my dad. He simply ignored my presence like he had been doing for the past two weeks. I made my way up to my room and changed into some warmer clothes since the afternoon was starting to bring in colder weather. I made my way to my mom and dad's room and found my mom putting on her shoes and spritzing a hint of perfume on herself.

"Hey mom."

"Hi sweety. How was school?"

"It was actually good for once. And I actually wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Well, I was talking to Troy-"

"Didn't your father tell you not to associate with him?"

"It's kind of impossible now that we are having a child together. I can't just shun him out of my life. He's concerned about the baby. And that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Alright."

"Well, I was talking to him and told him that today we were gonna go and see the baby. He got really excited and started begging me to let him come. I just wanted to see if that was alright with you."

My mom let out a long sigh and replied with a monotonous tone, "Well, I suppose he has the right to."

I jumped with excitement and went to hug my mom. "Thanks!"

I walked out into the hallway and texted Troy.

"Yo homeboy get ready cuz we boutta see this baby!"

He texted back almost instantaneously.

"Already ahead of ya. i'm gonna lay in the middle of the street until u come!"

I laughed at how much of a dork he was. My mom came out of her room and we made our way to Troy's house.


	9. Chapter 9

The car ride was full of loud music from the radio to break the awkwardness trying to form around us. No on one talked the whole ride except for occasionally small talk between all three of us. We finally arrived to the clinic after what seemed to be the longest car ride and we made our way to the waiting area. Both my mom and I went up to the front desk to check in while Troy made his way to one of the chairs and picked up a baby magazine. The receptionist was an older woman, probably in her mid 50s. She had blonde wiry hair, too much cover up on her face, and a small mole above the right side of her lip.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

"We're here for an ultrasound appointment." I was so relieved that my mom was doing all the speaking. But even with her speaking, anxiety was starting to creep in.

"Name?"

"Gabriella Montez."

She started typing with her freakishly long nails, filling the room with the obnoxious sound of clicking. "Oh today's the first time you're going to be seeing you baby. How exciting!" She turned over to me, "And are you the big sister?"

"Uh," I opened my mouth, but couldn't form the words to tell her that I was the one that was pregnant.

My mom spoke up, "Actually, this appointment is for her. She's the soon to be mom."

The receptionist smile faded away as she directed her attention to me. "Oh, I'm sorry!" She hesitated, "Not about you being pregnant! I mean about confusing the both of you." She was starting to become more nervous. She let out a little laugh as if that were going to make things better. I started turning red and looked down. I crossed my arms and just waited for her to say that the doctor will be with us in a couple of minutes.

As we were walking back to the chairs where Troy was seated, the receptionist called out. "Congrats on the baby!" She flashed one of the fakest smiles I had ever seen in my 17 years of life. I could tell she was secretly judging me. I just directed my view to Troy. As I sat down, Troy put down the magazine. He seemed to notice my sudden change of mood.

"What happened up there?"

"She thought that my mom was the pregnant one and that I was going to be the big sister." I rolled my eyes, and crossed my arms again.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. And then she fucking tried to make it seem like she was happy for me and tell me 'Congrats'. I would've rather preferred being punched in the throat than having to witness her smug ass smile."

"Trust me, no you wouldn't. Being punched in the throat sucks. My friend did it to me once and I couldn't breathe right for a full 5 minutes." Troy tried to lighten up the mood, but I ignored him.

"I bet she's gonna go and tell all the nurses that there is a pregnant teen like if I was the first one to be pregnant at this age."

"Gabs, calm down, " Troy chuckled.

"How? I'm honestly so sick and tired of getting stares from people and judgment looks from adults. I bet crackheads don't even get that many stares." And with that, the ultrasound technician called my name. She was a lot younger than the receptionist and had long, dark hair.

As we were walking to the ultrasound room, there were other nurses that were in the hallway. They were all staring at me. I guess the receptionist had opened her big mouth and told them already. I felt myself get red again and make my way to Troy. He always made me feel better.

We finally arrived to a small, dark room filled with unfamiliar machines. The doctor introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Garcia and I'll be your ultrasound technician."

"I'm Gabriella. Nice to meet you." I shook her hand. Something about her youthfulness brought the sense of relief that was originally taken from the receptionist.

"And how far along are you?"

"About 8 weeks."

She whipped out her clipboard and started asking all sorts of health questions. Mostly about whether or not I do drugs and if I drink booze often. Afterwards, she finally asked me to lay back of the clinic bed and lift up my shirt. Troy made his way over to my side.

"I'm going to put this blue gel on your belly. And just to give you a little warning, it's going to be cold." The doctor said as she put a weird paper towel looking thing in between my jeans and skin. She wasn't kidding when she said that it was going to be cold. I flinched a little when the gel first hit my skin. She grabbed the transducer and used it to smear all of the gel around my belly.

"And who is this fine young man?"

"I'm Troy," he smiled and reached his hand over to shake her hand, "I'm the dad." He said it as if we had been married for several years and were finally ready to start a family. I didn't understand how he could just blab it out so matter-of-factly. It always took me several seconds before I could even open my mouth to admit that I was pregnant.

"Well, nice to meet you," she genuinely smiled, unlike the rest of the adults in my life. "Are you two excited to be parents?"

I cringed at the sound of "excited", but luckily she was too busy smearing the blue gel on my belly and didn't see my reaction. "Nervous, for the most part," I replied.

"Don't worry. Everyone is nervous when they're pregnant with their first child, regardless of the age." I smiled at her. She grabbed another little machine and put it on my lap.

"So, first we're going to use a fetal doppler. It lets us hear the baby's heart to see if it's beating right." She took the handle-like piece and placed on my belly, then turned up the volume on the machine. Rapid thumping noises filled the room. "That's your baby's heart beat. I know it sounds freaky and everything, but it is supposed to be that fast. We could also hear your heartbeat in the background."

"Whoa," Troy said in pure fascination at the sound. He looked down at me grinned. I returned it.

"Your baby's heart is doing perfectly well from the sound of it," the doctor said as she cleaned off the part of the machine that was used to track down the heartbeat.

Next, she grabbed the transducer to the ultrasound machine again. I could feel my heart start to pound fast, like the baby's. Ever since I mentioned the adoption plan to Troy, I was almost certain that that's what I wanted to do. But then again, maybe looking at the baby on the screen, I might fall in love with it, and that's what I was afraid of. The doctor started moving the transducer around as if she was playing hide-and-seek with the baby.

"Ah, there it is," the doctor said with victory. I wanted nothing more then to turn the opposite direction of the screen and close my eyes, so that I wouldn't be able to see the baby. But sadly, with a room this small containing three other people, I wouldn't be able to get away with it without looking like I was full of hatred. I slowly turned my head to look up at the screen and saw what appeared to be a little bean. It was nothing like what I expected. Being a single child, I was never exposed to this type of stuff. I expected a little tiny human in there with tiny arms, leg, and microscopic fingers. I couldn't believe that it was supposed to be a little human. And yet, I was stuck looking at the screen in pure amazement. Troy grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze. I looked over at him and caught him smiling from cheek to cheek. I was jealous of the fact that he was so worry free about this whole thing. Meanwhile, I was slowly falling in love with the little bean in my belly and slowly becoming more anxious as to what my future was going to hold.

"Right there are the little arms and legs," she said, pointing to the screen. As she started labeling what was where on the little bean, I could finally start to make shape of it. At first it felt as if I were taking some sort of health class that explained pregnancy and how we all came to be. Then it hit me that the picture on the screen wasn't taken from some mid-30 year old woman who was pregnant. This was real life. A lump began to form in my throat as I saw the little child up on the screen. My child.

"How big is the baby?" Troy asked, curious as always.

"It's about the size of a kidney bean. At this stage, the baby does a lot of moving around, but mom can't feel it. Soon you will, hun." She looked over at me and winked. I smiled while envisioning the baby karate chopping me in the womb because it wants out.

"It's so tiny," Troy replied as he giggled.

I decided to look over at my mom and I could see that she was grinning. I even saw her eyes sparkle from the tears she was trying to hold back. She caught me staring at her.

"What? I'm not made of stone."

I just laughed and directed my attention to the doctor.

"Well, that's it for 'll schedule you back here once your 12 weeks. By then the baby will stop looking like a little bean and actually have the features of a person." I found it hard to envision such progression in four weeks. Stuck with the image of the baby being a bean, the only progression I imagined was it growing into a beanstalk.

She proceeded wiping off my stomach with some paper towels, then I sat up. She handed me a pamphlet.

"Here's this. It's just some of the basic information on pregnancy, what is and isn't normal, what to eat, things like that. If you ever have any questions or concerns, you can always call the clinic and ask for me. If I'm not available, someone else will answer the question, alright?"

"Alright."

She printed out the ultrasound pictures and we made our way out into the car.

"Oh my gosh that was incredible!" Troy said, still looking at the pictures. "I think it's safe to say that our baby has my eyes."

"You're such a dork. But I hope it does. We don't need anymore brown eyed people in this family," I said as I laughed.

We dropped Troy off at his place and made our way home.

"Are you going to show your father the ultrasound pictures?" My mom asked my, interrupting Ray J's One Wish song on the radio.

"I wasn't planning to. I feel like if I handed him the pictures, he would end up ripping them, and believe it or not, I want to keep them fully in tact."

"Are you going to put them in a baby book or something?"

"I don't think so."

"Why not? Baby books are incredible. They're so great to look at when the kids are all grown up. I'll have to show you yours sometime."

"I don't know if I'm keeping the baby. I was thinking of adoption." I looked out the window, laying my head back on the seat. There was a little bit of silence before my mom decided to break it.

"What does Troy think?"

"I only mentioned it to him once and he didn't seem too into the idea. I'm scared to tell him that that's the route I wanna take. I mean, you saw how happy he was in there. I just feel like he doesn't really grasp the idea that having a kid's going to be hard. But I also don't want to break his heart."

"Gabby, I honestly think it's up to you. Whatever you decide, I will support you. But, giving up your baby is a tough, tough choice. It's tougher than you can even imagine right now."

I remembered what Troy told me. "I guess only time will tell."

When we arrived home, I saw my dad sitting on the couch watching the news. I gathered all the courage up that I had and decided to greet him.

"Hey dad."

Nothing.

I walked to him and sat next to him with the ultrasound pictures.

"I got to see the baby today. Want to see it?"

I handed him the pictures and he looked at them. He grinned a tad bit, then handed them back. Maybe Troy was right. All I had to give him was time. With that, I decided to go up to my room and hang up the pictures on my wall. I thought back to what my mom said and what I was thinking in the ultrasound room. I did the one thing I was afraid that would happen. I fell in love with the little kidney bean inside of my belly, and I knew it was going to hurt like hell giving it away.


	10. Chapter 10

After the non-restful and thoughtful weekend, school sadly came once again. Although this was the same routine I had been through consecutively for half the school year, I'm still not accustomed to dragging myself out of bed. I walked zombie-like to bathroom and began my routine to make myself look somewhat decent. For once, I didn't have the urge to puke all of my insides out. I actually felt like a normal teenage girl.

I made my way to Chemistry where I would always try not to fall asleep. Staying awake used to not be a problem, but ever since I got pregnant, I wasn't able to drink coffee or anything that contained caffeine. It was like living in hell. I walked up to Taylor and sat down.

"Yo, are you alright?"

"Yeah. Well at least for someone who can't have any type of energizing drink in the morning."

"You look like you haven't slept in ages."

"Thanks for not being blatantly obvious at telling me I look like shit," I said sarcastically, "I've just had a lot of things on my mind."

"Girl, talk to me."

"Well, I went to see the baby on Friday with my mom and Troy-"

"OMG how was it? Did your mom completely ignore Troy?" Taylor was quick to interrupt me.

"Well, she didn't totally ignore his presence. There was small talk here and there but other than that, it was incredibly awkward. But as soon as the ultrasound technician brought us into the room, everything seemed to go somewhat uphill. And as for seeing the baby, it was magnificent."

"How did it look like?" Taylor scooched her seat a little closer to mine. She looked like a little kid being told a story of some superhero.

"Honestly, it looked like a little bean. I couldn't tell what was what on the little body until the doctor started pointing things out. But even then, all I saw was a little bean. You should've seen Troy. He was like an excited little puppy. The whole experience was bittersweet."

"Why bittersweet?"

"Well, I've been thinking about whether or not I want to keep it. I mean, it sounds like it'd be kind of enjoyable having a little one round, but at the same time I feel like it's just not my time to be a mother. I don't want this baby to have a screwed up life because I wasn't at the maturity level required to take care of another life."

"If anything, you're way more mature than half the adults out there that have children. But I see your point. Have you told Troy?"

"I haven't mentioned it ever since the last time. He seems so happy about everything and I don't want to ruin that for him."

"Ladies, if you could please stop the yapping and get to doing your work, that'd be great," the teacher obnoxiously said. And with that, the conversation ended.

The rest of the school day went as usual, excruciatingly boring and long. And for some odd reason, Troy wasn't at school. I texted to see if everything was alright. But there was no response, causing me to worry a little. It was unlike him to miss school, and much less not respond to me. I'll call him later, I thought to myself as I walked to my car.

I made my way home and went straight to my room. My brain was exploding of thoughts and questions. I couldn't help but think that maybe adoption was the way to go. One of the many problems with that was that I didn't know how to even begin the process of adoption or how anything worked. Just as I was about to grab my laptop to do some research on it, I heard the door creak open and turned my head to face it. It was unusual for someone to enter my room at this time since my mom was at work and my dad was still upset with me. But, to my surprise, it was my dad.

"Hey Gabriella," he said in a somewhat sweet tone, something I hadn't heard from him in a couple of weeks.

"Hey?" I tried to make it seem as if I wasn't in complete shock from the scenario that was playing out before my eyes, but I failed. He approached my bed slowly and eventually sat down on it. This was strange.

"How you been feeling?"

I cringed in confusion, but proceeded to answer him. "Fine."

"That's good."

Unable to hold in all the questions that were going on inside of my head, I decided to speak up. "I'm sorry, but what exactly are you doing here?"

"What? I can't even talk to my own daughter now?"

"Well, of course you can. But, it's not exactly a secret that you've pretty much ignored my existence for the past couple of weeks. I just found it weird that you're all of a sudden acting as if nothing happened."

"Look, I wanted to apologize for that night. You know, when you told me that you were," he looked down at my belly, but didn't finish the sentence. "Everything got out of control."

"It's fine. I understand that being pregnant is not exactly what you were hoping for me to be at 17."

"That's actually what I wanted to talk about."

I didn't know what to expect to come out of his mouth. There was a little hope in me that maybe it would be something positive.

"Well, I've been reading on, how would you call them? Alternatives?" He continued. Suddenly my slightness of hope was crushed.

"Now, hear me out. Don't go yelling at me like your mother did. But, there are other things you can do besides having the baby."

"Are you saying I should abort it?" I was in pure disbelief at the inhumanity my dad was presenting.

"Gabby, you still have time to abort it. It's not too late," he took out a pamphlet on abortion and pointed at the bullet points. I began feeling sick.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I whispered loudly enough to where he could hear it.

He was becoming irritated. "How do you plan to take care of a child when you're only 17?"

"But, there's adoption! I don't have to just go and kill the baby!"

"What? So you plan to just basically feel it grow inside of you and look at ultrasound pictures and listen to its heart beat for nine months so you can fall in love with it? I know how this works. In the end, you won't even want to give the," he hesitated, "thing up!"

"Thing? How can you speak of it as if it were a piece of trash we want to dispose of? Especially after showing you the ultrasound pictures. And so what if I want to keep it? I'll manage."

"Are you even hearing yourself right now Gabriella? How are you going to manage taking care of another life? You have no means of support other than Troy. And I've seen that boy, he isn't very bright, so how the fuck is he going to manage to have a successful career?" His voice grew louder as he continued to speak, "I don't think his parents are going to cough up the money to pay for your guys' dumbass mistake. I sure as hell am not. You have no job, you're still in high school for fucks sake!"

"I bet Troy will be a better father than you'll ever be!"

At that moment the door flew open and in came a pissed off version of my mom.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, you didn't hear? Dad wants me to get an abortion." I succeeded at holding in the tears, but my voice was still cracky.

My mom looked over at my dad in astonishment. "I told you not to talk about this with her!" She shoved my dad back with her hand. I had never seen her this upset.

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm trying to save our daughter from fucking up her life!"

"How are you doing any of that?! Yelling at her telling her to kill her child is your way of wanting what's best for her?" My mom was on the verge of tears. At this point, I didn't know if it was because she was infuriated or genuinely upset.

"So you just want to see her life go to downhill because she wanted to bring that little shit into this world? I did not make sure that we lived in good neighborhood, make sure that she got the best education, and work my ass off to ensure that she had a guaranteed chance at going to college and making something out of herself for it to all of it to go in the trash! That kid is going to be her destruction!"

"Get out," I managed to say in the middle of the chaos and breakdown.

Both of my parents looked at me. At this point my face was covered in tears. They continued standing there and looking at me.

"JUST GET OUT!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, causing my voice to sound scratchy. I had so much anger and hatred built up in me that I couldn't just bottle it up. And with that, my parents made their way out the door. Before it closed, I felt my dad's presence just standing in the doorway, with his hand on the handle of the door.

"You're not my daughter anymore," he said in a voice colder than a winter night, and slammed the door.


End file.
